About A Thousand People Were Present,
According To My Calculation, And Three Hundred Soldiers.
The Sun Had Now Become Hot; And The Scene Ended By The Mambari
Discharging Their Guns.
18TH. We were awakened during the night by a message from Shinte,
requesting a visit at a very unseasonable hour.
As I was just
in the sweating stage of an intermittent, and the path to the town lay through
a wet valley, I declined going. Kolimbota, who knows their customs best,
urged me to go; but, independent of sickness, I hated words of the night
and deeds of darkness. "I was neither a hyaena nor a witch."
Kolimbota thought that we ought to conform to their wishes in every thing:
I thought we ought to have some choice in the matter as well,
which put him into high dudgeon. However, at ten next morning we went,
and were led into the courts of Shinte, the walls of which were woven rods,
all very neat and high. Many trees stood within the inclosure
and afforded a grateful shade. These had been planted, for we saw some
recently put in, with grass wound round the trunk to protect them
from the sun. The otherwise waste corners of the streets were planted
with sugar-cane and bananas, which spread their large light leaves
over the walls.
The Ficus Indica tree, under which we now sat, had very large leaves,
but showed its relationship to the Indian banian by sending down shoots
toward the ground. Shinte soon came, and appeared a man
of upward of fifty-five years of age, of frank and open countenance,
and about the middle height. He seemed in good humor, and said
he had expected yesterday "that a man who came from the gods would have
approached and talked to him." That had been my own intention in going
to the reception; but when we came and saw the formidable preparations,
and all his own men keeping at least forty yards off from him,
I yielded to the solicitations of my men, and remained by the tree
opposite to that under which he sat. His remark confirmed
my previous belief that a frank, open, fearless manner is the most winning
with all these Africans. I stated the object of my journey and mission,
and to all I advanced the old gentleman clapped his hands in approbation.
He replied through a spokesman; then all the company joined in the response
by clapping of hands too.
After the more serious business was over, I asked if he had ever seen
a white man before. He replied, "Never; you are the very first I have seen
with a white skin and straight hair; your clothing, too,
is different from any we have ever seen." They had been visited
by native Portuguese and Mambari only.
On learning from some of the people that "Shinte's mouth was bitter
for want of tasting ox-flesh," I presented him with an ox,
to his great delight; and, as his country is so well adapted for cattle,
I advised him to begin a trade in cows with the Makololo.
He was pleased with the idea, and when we returned from Loanda,
we found that he had profited by the hint, for he had got three,
and one of them justified my opinion of the country, for it was more
like a prize heifer for fatness than any we had seen in Africa.
He soon afterward sent us a basket of green maize boiled,
another of manioc-meal, and a small fowl.
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